Is it Sunday Already?

Time is just flying by.  I'm not even noticing the details of my weeks because I'm so jam packed with work, and school, and working out, and playing in my kitchen!  This semester has been a blur!

It's 2 weeks into my dietbet, only 16 more days to go!  I'm currently down another 2 pounds!  Woot!  While normally this would have discouraged me, I learned a few helpful tidbits earlier this year.

• Eat what you want.  Restricting your diet so much that you can't have your favorite foods will make you miserable.  Just keep in mind "in moderation."  Don't throw out those leafy greens because all you want are burgers and fries!  This was a particularly hard lesson for me to learn.  I am a cook.  I LOVE to cook, and I do it as often as possible.  At the beginning of the year I felt like the love had been drained out of my cooking because of all the restrictions I had put on myself.  No cheese unless absolutely necessary, cut WAY back on the Mexican foods, go fat free or low fat on the creamy stuff (cream cheese, sour cream) if I was even allowed to have them!  I learned very quickly that if you can't occasionally cook what you want, you won't be happy through your journey to get healthy.
• Muscles weigh a lot.  This is one of those that just gets people down at the beginning of their changes in life.  When people pick up physical activity, they expect immediate results.  The fact of the matter is, you're building muscles you didn't know existed, and they will put more pounds on the scale.  My 2 lbs lost this week would normally feel like a devastation with how hard I'm working, but I know I don't have these muscles in my legs developed much at all so I'm grateful for a negative rather than a positive number on that scale!
• Have Fun!  If you're not having fun, find something else to do.  I have tried a lot of different stuff.  Some for practical reasons (yoga for ease on my joints and injuries) to super duper fat burning (ANY Jillian Michaels DVD).  If you're not smiling at SOME point of your routine, then you're not getting all you can out of it.  I have 2 VERY bad knees.  I have not attempted walking or running for YEARS because of the pain I deal with.  That being said, I have enjoyed my walking for the last two weeks more than anything else I've tried this year.  I've got aches and pains and some frustrations with injuries, but I'm smiling and that makes me want to go out and do it again tomorrow.

It's amazing the little things we learn from ourselves without realizing it until we put it into words.

I'm currently still only walking.  I just don't have the breath, muscle, or endurance to throw some jogging in yet.  (I'm THAT out of shape!)  But that being said, I walked  13.73 miles this week.  I would have done more but I had some issues with my shins and didn't want to overdo myself before the 5k I have coming up on Saturday.

In that 14 miles, 3 of the sessions were full 5k's or more.  I am so proud of my determination rather than being disappointed in my giving up.  I've decided that after this 5k I'm going to do my training right and start the C25K program for the rest of the year to kick off 2014 right.

I want to be a runner.  I want to experience the exhilaration of crossing many finish lines.  I want to feel like I'm actually trying and succeeding. I'm doing, rather than dreaming and I couldn't be more proud of myself.

Here's to another week of walking.

Walkin' a Ton!

Wow what a week it's been!!!!  I started off my week with the AMAZING experience of a 5k walk for breast cancer.  What an awesome kickstart to my dietbet and my dedication is back on track!!!

I'm down to my last 3 classes in school. FOREVER!  I can't wait to have that stress completely off my shoulders.  It'll free up a ton of time for me to focus on me and my cooking. :D

I managed to squeeze in 3 more walks this week as well as one day on my elliptical.  What better use of my time than to walk while I wait for the boyfriend to get off of work?!  And tonight, I walked our apt complex in circles to get in 3.16 miles.  Boy am I beat!  And as my uncle so kindly pointed out, my paths look like I'm drunk, but really, I'm just going where my feet take me!

I also bought myself a new pair of kicks!  Man!  Running shoes make a WORLD of different.  I own a nice pair of New Balance shoes but they're not specific for running.  So I managed to find this sweeeeeeeeet pair of shoes for $40!  SOLD!  My walk tonight was 100% better than the 5k I did on Sunday.

I'm super proud of myself and can't wait for my date with Zach tomorrow.  We're gonna go on a walk together.  I'm shooting for at least another 3 miles. :)  No weigh ins yet for my diet bet.  I'm gonna wait until Sunday for my first weekly weigh in but I've been very conscious of what I'm eating and what I'm eliminating from my diet.  Here's to a great weekend and hopefully another great week!

Walking For Boobies 5k!!!

Well it's happened.  I started and completed my first 5k.  Mind you, we signed up for the walk, but still!  We walked for the tatas!

Last night I dyed my hair and painted my nails for the festivities.

My hair didn't turn out quite how I wanted, but there was still pink in it, so it's cool :)

I begrudgingly rolled out of bed at 6:15 on a sunday morning, didn't have enough time to get my morning coffee, and drove downtown to see if I could find some parking.  Met up with my bestie Catherine who was walking in celebration of her Grandma who is a survivor of breast cancer.  Starting to wake up a bit more....

Begin the festivities of free stuff!  We wandered and managed to get all kinds of good loots!  I got a new pedometer, a water bottle, some SWEET sunglasses, one of those antennae headbands, lots of pens, breakfast from Wildflower Bread Company (along with a banana), and some other random goodies.

 Took a few photos with Catherine as we waited for the race to start.

Had Catherine take a picture of my awesome Breast Cancer New Balance workout shirt!  (can't really see it all that well....)

And then, it was finally time!  Got all snuggly with a bunch of other strangers clad in pink at the starting line!

Had a lovely walk with Catherine, tracked the walk with my phone app Endomondo (really cool when you use it for distance tracking), and drank a tooooooooooooon of water.  There were cheerleaders, and supporters along the way cheering us on.  It was a ton of fun!  After about 2.2ish miles, my feet were feeling it!  But we were almost done!  And then we turn a corner and what do I seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee???

Yay we did it!  We took our "finish line" picture and then crossed holding hands up in the air because WE DID IT!

Man was I sore.  Kinda tired, but the super hard wave of sleepies hit me after I went home with my treat to myself for doing a 5k!  A footlong double meat turkey with tons of veggies and no sauce! :)

Time to add my $1 to the jar for working out!  But I had this great idea!!!  $5 for a 5k :)  I'm all to willing to donate $5 to my working out fund for such an accomplishment that I never thought I would achieve.

And now, I'm in my kitchen making fajitas because I just have a hankerin' for some Mexican food!  I'm super proud of myself that I finished a 5k even if it was a walk.  It was a moving experience to walk with all those that have friends and family members affected by the cancer.  I plan to make it one of my goals to make it every year. 

The one thing I learned is that I am NOT ready for my Run For Your Life 5k that's going down in 3 weeks. O.o

What to do about it?!?!  Well, I just happened to sign up for another Dietbet that starts tomorrow night.  The entry fee is $30 and the pot keeps getting bigger and bigger!!!  I have a good feeling about this one.  I will make the next 3 weeks the hardest I've trained in a long time to prove to myself that I can do it.  I can make that difference in my life even if I lost track and drifted due to life getting in the way.  This 5k was a great kickoff to me getting back on track now that I'm almost done with school.  I'll have a lot more time to dedicate to me. <3>

Starting the Dietbet off at 201.8lbs.  This is the heaviest I've ever been and instead of being down about it, I'm excited to make that change again.  So here's to picking it back up and here's to motivation!

What am I thinking??

I'm not a runner, I've never really tried to pick it up.  My knees are just too messed up to think about it.  BUT my good ol' buddy who lives in Utah decided he wanted to come down for a visit in November.  While he's here, he decided it would be a lovely idea to run a 5k....

What does that mean for me?  Means I'm running a 5k.... O.o  oh boy here we go...!  I haven't had the time to do ANY training....  With work and school I barely have time to cook dinner every day.  Gonna try to get in a jog or two a week... maybe a walk instead.... who knows!

So we'll be participating in the Run For Your Life 5k on Nov. 2nd.  As unprepared as I am, I think I'm pretty excited about it.  They give you the choice of running or playing a zombie.  While I'd love to be a zombie, my buddy went for a runner pass, so run I shall.  Since I don't get to dress as a zombie, I decided to get a costume to feel cool too!  I went with Alice from Resident Evil!

Got the dress from a cosplay site and I got some SWEET boots to go with it.  (I'll be in tennies for the running but I'll wear the boots for halloween and the afterparty for the 5k)  Think I'm more excited about the outfit than the 5k, but it should be a great time!

Here's to any training I can get done! 

And I wanted to give a shout out to my awesome sister in law who just finished a 5k recently!  I'm so proud of her and all she's accomplished!  It's fun to follow people's journeys and 5k's seem to be the hot thing these days!

School Started!

Now normally I'm always a little excited for school to start, but this is my last semester so I'm ready to be done!  I was only a few credits short for my degree so I decided to take a few fun classes to fill up my schedule.  Fun is a very loose term here since they're still school classes... :)  Along with them being "fun," these classes were picked to help me in my fitness journey!  I am taking a nutrition class and a health and wellness class!!  I'm excited to learn information that I can take with me for the rest of my life.  I will be sharing what I learn as well as challenge those that read my blog to take this journey with me (just without the homework and exams!).

Hoping this will be the most beneficial choice I've made in "filler courses" since I started college!

Restless.

It's been almost 2 weeks since I rushed to the ER with blood gushing from my finger and I haven't picked any exercise back up.  There are still possible complications with my finger.  (waiting on x-rays to see if it's fractured, and possible nerve damage...)

I keep seeing posts from the Shrinking Jeans ladies that talk about excuses, and time to go, and stuff like that and it's making me impatient.  I want to get back into it.  I want to get back on track, but I'm afraid of the pain that might come with the heart pumping and the blood flowing.  The throbbing and the pain if I do something just a bit off and I might hurt my finger.

I'm ready to be all better.  I want my finger back so I can type with 10 fingers... And I want my finger back so I can take normal showers (without the plastic bag around my hand) after a great workout!

I wish everyone that's reading luck to keep on truckin' with their journeys and remember that it's important and once you get into the swing of things, you miss it when it's not available to you. :)

Boo Boo.

Well, it's about that time for me to have some kind of accident considering I'm terribly clumsy just like my mother.  This time around I managed to carelessly cut my finger right open.  It was bad enough to require an ER visit and several stitches.

Needless to say, I'm not going to be able to continue with the Yoga challenge until the throbbing and pain kinda subside in my hand.  No downward dogs for me. :(  Good luck to all those ladies still participating for the surprise at the end!!  I'll get back into the groove as soon as I'm on the mend.